Federal authorities are now involved in the investigation of a minor bombing and the threat of more violence in Coos Bay, Ore., where a Christian cross attached to a Vietnam War memorial is the focus of controversy.

A small improvised explosive device (IED) was detonated at the memorial on the evening of Aug. 22, several months after someone spray-painted a dotted line and the words “cut off here” at the base of the cross, The Oregonian reported. The 5 1/2-foot tall monument is in Mingus Park, erected in 1972 under the sponsorship of the Jaycees and Western Bank.

On Sept. 3, Coos Bay firefighters responding to a structure fire found a second, unexploded IED inside The Prayer Chapel, a Coos Bay church that has offered to move the memorial to its property, other media outlets reported. ( continue to full post… )